Weekly high school late starts extended

TEMECULA -- More than a dozen math teachers gathered around long
tables in Great Oak High School's computer lab on a recent Monday
morning.

The talk centered on students, testing and other issues facing
the Temecula high school's math department. After a while, the
teachers broke into small groups to continue their discussions.

While the math teachers met, the scene was repeated across the
campus. The English department, the science department, all the
school's teachers gathered with peers in their respective subjects
to talk about what's going on in their classrooms.

The meetings also took place among teachers at Temecula Valley
and Chaparral high schools -- between 7:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. --
when the high schools are normally in session on a typical day.

Sacrificing more than an hour of class time every week, when
teachers meet and collaborate during so-called late start days,
helps students in the long run, the schools' principals say.

But some parents, students -- and teachers -- are not thrilled
with the weekly late starts, according to interviews and a recent
district-conducted survey.

Nevertheless, late starts are going to continue next year, the
school board determined recently. Trustees voted unanimously to
approve a calendar for the 2006-07 school year that includes weekly
late starts at the three mainstream high schools in the
district.

"It was the right thing to do," board President Barbara Tooker
said Wednesday. "Let's give it time, leave it in place long enough
to evaluate it (next year). If there is blatant evidence it's
wrong, then we dump it. If there is blatant evidence it's working,
then we keep it going."

Great Oak High School Principal Tim Ritter said it is
working.

"One of the common pieces you see in high-performing schools is
opportunities for teachers to collaborate," Ritter said. "Teachers
need time to talk about best practices, to look at students' work
and develop common assessments."

Not everyone is convinced. Bob Rollins, president of the
Temecula Valley Educators Association, the teachers' union, said
that most teachers didn't ask for late starts, but they got it.

"When someone piles a bunch of green beans on the plate,
sometimes you kind of sit there and eat through them," Rollins
said. "Some (teachers) are actually trying to do something with it,
some of them bring in papers to grade."

Established practice

The Temecula school district has allowed weekly late starts
since last spring.

Although students are losing classroom time, the district can
allow the late starts because overall the high schools offer more
classroom time than required by state law.

With the board's and the California Department of Education's
permission, the practice started at Great Oak High School in April
and began at the other two high schools in August.

Prior to then, the high schools held late starts about once
every two months.

Ritter, one of the most vocal proponents of late starts, touts
research authors such as Robert Marzano and Mike Schmoker, who have
written books citing the quantitative, positive results of teacher
collaboration.

In a letter to parents last year kicking off the program, Ritter
wrote that adoption of late start days are common across the state,
and that Schmoker, in his book "Results: The Key to Continuous
School Improvement" cites collaboration as the best thing for
teachers and students.

The overall template for late starts in the district is for
teachers to determine what they want students to know, find out
whether they are learning it, and then brainstorm on how to teach
that information better, officials said.

Late starts have been taking place at Great Oak High for nearly
a year, and the results are evident, Ritter said.

"Teachers are asking kids to know and learn the same thing," he
said. "We have our finger on what our students know, and will be
able to do. The students know what's expected of them and they have
a better chance of hitting that target."

Temecula Valley and Chaparral high school principals said they
are also strong proponents of weekly late starts.

"Our ultimate goal is to be better classroom instructors,
because that's where the learning takes place," said Chaparral High
School Principal Paul Robinson. "Teachers are the ones who decide
what needs to be on the agendas. Administrators help find them
whatever resources are necessary to make it happen, and give
suggestions on focus, but for the most part teachers drive the
staff development."

Temecula Valley High School Principal Scott Schaufele said his
campus is moving forward with late starts next year because many
teachers have found the time to be valuable.

Anatomy of a late start

What teachers do during their late start meetings differs from
department to department, and campus to campus.

At Chaparral during a recent late start day, the English
department discussed how best to grade essays and set plans to
review their vocabulary program at the next meeting.

Language teachers at the school talked about results of a recent
Spanish III exam, and planned changes to the test, such as
modifying the grammar section.

Chaparral's math department focused on creating review packets
to better align their curriculum with state standardized testing,
and worked on their online grading program, as well as analyzed
final exam questions.

The social science department listened to a presentation by
Assistant Principal Brian Morris about ways to engage students in
the classroom. Teachers are expected to apply some of the ideas in
the classroom and report back.

Several teachers said they find the collaboration time useful
and helpful.

Chris Shore, the math department chairman at Great Oak High,
said that prior to late starts, teachers could give tests on any
random day, testing the students with different questions, and
grade them differently to boot.

"The number one thing is common assessments," he said. "All the
algebra teachers are giving the same test at the same time. We want
an A to be an A. We have a common vision and clear goals that we
need time to achieve."

Since the late starts have been implemented at Great Oak, the
algebra pass rate among students has gone from 64 percent when it
started, to 73 percent last spring, to a 79 percent now, Shore
said.

"I am a big proponent of meeting frequently," he said. "Teachers
in other countries have time to plan and in most of those cases
meet together."

Chuck Downing, a science teacher at Great Oak, said that, during
late starts, teachers discuss state academic standards and how to
teach them to students, and find ways to grade students' work,
especially subjective lab work, equally.

"It's so the kids all know what they have to know, and when they
demonstrate it, it's all equitably scored," he said. "There has to
be common expectations applied so when students get to an advanced,
third-year science class, everybody who gets there has gone through
the same thing."

Grading equally is an important part of English teacher
collaborations, too, said Great Oak teachers January King and Joe
Balleweg. Teachers will bring scored essays to their meetings and
talk about why they gave students certain grades, they said.

"What we are trying to eliminate is easy or hard grading," King
said. "Otherwise it's unfair."

The English teachers will also demonstrate lectures to their
peers to show them how they successfully convey lesson plans during
meetings, they said.

Reaction revealed

While many teachers, especially at Great Oak, praise the late
starts, reaction among parents and students is mixed.

"I think it's pretty cool," said Stephanie Winkenweder, 14, a
freshman at Great Oak. "It gives you extra time to do your homework
and you get extra sleep."

But her friend, freshman Heather Wilson, 15, said she has her
doubts.

"I would prefer an early end," she said. "You get part of your
day back. My parents have to take me here early, and my parents
think it's stupid. It's time where I could be doing something
useful."

Parent reaction is varied when it comes to late starts,
according to a multiple-choice survey of Great Oak parents taken a
few weeks ago by district officials.

When asked whether they thought their child's academic
achievement has improved during the last year, 52 percent agreed,
20 percent disagreed and 28 percent were undecided.

When asked whether their children were using the time before
school on Mondays for school or work-related activities, 72 percent
of parents replied no.

And when asked whether the teacher collaboration time
contributed to their child's improved academic achievement, 36
percent of parents replied yes, and the rest were undecided.

When parents first learned of the program, they voiced concern
to principals about who would supervise the students until the bell
rang and whether the loss of classroom time was really the best
idea.

As the late start meetings took place at Great Oak recently,
students who arrived before 9 milled about the campuses in the
quads. Others could be found in the schools' libraries, and still
others slept until the latest possible moment, then hopped in their
cars or got a ride from mom or dad.

Teachers at Temecula Valley High School in February 2005 voted
against implementing late starts at their campus by a 2-to-1 ratio
in a campuswide vote.

Ultimately, Temecula Valley teachers said at the time, they
joined Chaparral and Great Oak high schools because of pressure
from district administrators.

Jeff Waugh, a longtime government teacher at Temecula Valley,
said that despite teachers not wanting the late starts at first,
they are making good use of the time.

"Most of us need to get together, it's just that we had been
doing that since time eternal," Waugh said, adding that Great Oak
is only 3 years old and its teachers had more of a need to
collaborate.

Robinson said he knows not every teacher is going to support
late starts.

"Many are using this time well to make a difference, and we'll
get better at using it as we keep at it," he said. "To give up on
it so quickly would be a mistake."

Shore said he and other teachers at Great Oak believe that
what's driving the need for the meeting time is the demand to
succeed.